Janie Dee excels at everything she does. Whether she's starring in London's West End or at the National Theatre, Broadway or the Hollywood Bowl, this multi-award-winning actress and singer's talent and passion for her craft has earned her a place among theatre royalty. Alan Ayckbourn…
Harry Potter fans know her as Professor Sprout, and television viewers know her as a chat show regular famous for shocking stories and bodily functions, or as a presenter of travel documentaries. Which is a shame because, however entertaining and beguiling she may be, the…
I never thought I'd fall in love with an acorn! But it is an oak seedling which takes centre stage in this exquisitely presented story of an acorn's life, as told by the hugely talented Peter Morton and his team. And it's adorable! With award-winning…
I left Gyles Brandreth's talk about happiness feeling sad. Sad that he couldn't have gone on for so much longer. And sad that, this year, he won't be performing at the Edinburgh Fringe. For Brandreth, raconteur, broadcaster, writer, actor, TV presenter, theatre producer and former…
This is going to be a short review! Not because I don't have anything to say about the performer in question but because I don't know enough superlatives! Besides, I never intended to review this show. I'd gone along as an ordinary punter, no notebook…
Yann Martel's Man Booker Prize-winning epic adventure of endurance and hope is so beautifully written that it must have provided the best material on which Lolita Chakrabarti could base her adaptation. But it was written with such imagination and incredulous scenes that Chakrabarti no doubt…
Doing a solo show is a marathon for any actor, and when it's a full-length play and you're delivering in a Scouse accent instead of your native Scots, even more so. I could have done with Sally Reid projecting a bit more last night, but…
Damian Barr's turbulent story of growing up in 1980's Lanarkshire was named Sunday Times Memoir of the Year and is now a Scottish classic. And his stage play, which he wrote with James Ley, is certain to win many more accolades. Produced by the National…
This latest adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon's classic Scottish novel is…extraordinary! In just a few sentences I learned more about the First World War than I ever have but, more importantly, I really felt what it must have been like to live in a close,…
As a woman travelling home alone from this show I should have been afraid, very afraid. For this powerful play is fizzing with anger against a violent society and and how some men treat women and girls. But it can't be as bad as Maureen…